Fort Benton centenarian going strong
By BECKY WALDENBERG
Tribune Correspondent
FORT BENTON
Like many other Montanans, Charlie Behrens has been bringing in the harvest.

Rows of plum jelly line the kitchen counter - a sign of the rich bounty from his plum tree. He's also been putting up vegetables from his garden.

And outside, still waving gently in the wind, are gladiolas and remnants of tiger lilies, sweet peas, roses and begonias that graced his yard.

It's not an unusual scene - except for the person in it. Behrens, you see, will turn 100 on October 16.

"This will be my last year for doing this," he says of his gardening and yard work. "I'm getting too old." But almost immediately he adds, "Well, maybe not. I don't know how much time I have left. I want to make the most of it."

He'll get a chance to make the most of it October 16 when the Fort Benton Veterans of Foreign Wars, the VFW Women's Auxiliary, Community Improvement Association of Fort Benton and Woman's Club cohost a birthday dinner for him.

But Behrens claims to not be too excited. "I don't know what all the fuss is about," he says. "It's just another day of the week. I have half a notion to take off and go fishing."

He's been a fixture in Fort Benton for many years, best known as the honorary grand marshal in many local parades, Behrens always wears his World War I Army uniform. He always walks too, although for the first time this year he rode in a car in the Fourth of July parade.

Although he's considered a veteran of World War I, Behrens emphasized that he was just in the service for 10 months and didn't fight in the war. A member of the Sapper Regiment of Engineers, Behren's group was packed and ready to go when the war ended.

Trained to build pontoon bridges and string telephone wire and barbed wire entanglements, Charlie was told by a returning soldier: "It was a good thing you didn't go over, 'cuz none of you would have ever made it back."

Charlie didn't see active duty but he did come close to dying while in the service.

"We were the first camp to get hit with the Russian flu epidemic. The beds were so close together the nurses could barely get through," Behrens says. "One day they'd pull a sheet over someone's head on one side of me and the next day the other side."

Charlie Behrens raised another colorful crop of gladiolas this year.
After entering the hospital, Behrens only remembers lying down and waking up ten days later.

While recovering from the flu, he collapsed and couldn't breathe.

The nurse couldn't find a pulse.

The doctor told me later he was afraid to come back to work the next morning because he thought I'd be dead," he says.

He never heard the medical reason for his collapse but was told by doctors he had made medical history. The doctor had never seen anyone live through what Charlie had experienced and was asked to write about it for medical journals.

"They told me I'd never be able to hard work again after that but, hell, that's all I've been doing," he says.

Behrens admits he's been somewhat of a loner ever since World War I. His father and mother and nine siblings lived in a German farming settlement in eastern Iowa.

Behrens says they were ostracized by their neighbors for not sympathizing with Germany.

Behren's dad was not allowed to use the community threshing machine and the family couldn't attend social events.

"We fooled them though," he says. "They didn't think we were going to get our grain in but we bought a small threshing machine and got it all done."

Behrens met and married his wife, Mabel, in Minnesota where she taught school. His job as a farm implement parts man brought them to Fort Benton.

He later became a farm equipment mechanic.

"That's why they tell me my knees are bad, too much heavy lifting," he says. "I finally quit them after 17 years.

He also worked at the local grain elevator for a couple of years and eventually farmed for someone else for 17 years.

He misses the farm work. "I wish I'd stayed," he says. "I thought I was getting too old. The shape I'm in I'd be just as able to sit on a tractor today. Charlie drove tractors for others in the community and spent his 80th birthday picking up hay bales. "But when "momma" got sick I stopped to take care of her," he says. Mabel Behrens entered the nursing home at the Missouri River Medical Center in 1980. Charlie spent the next four years caring for his wife in the nursing home. Charlie walked to the nursing home daily. Arriving early each morning, he exercised her legs, walked her in the wheelchair, emptied her bedpan if need be and fed her lunch.

"I have never seen such devotion and tender loving care as he gave her," says Toni Kind, a Missouri River Medical Center employee. Behrens still isn't afraid of hard work, and his house and yard are as neat as the proverbial pin. Married for 62 years, Charlie has lived the last eight years as a widower in the same home he shared with Mabel for over 30 years in downtown Fort Benton.

"I always helped mother (Mabel) put up the canning." Behrens says. "So it wasn't any chore to do it when she was gone. Take making jelly, I did the stirrun' while she did the bossin.'"

So why has Behrens lived so long? Is it the hard work? The fishing? The good natural food from the garden? A loving relationship with his wife? Behrens professes not to know. "I guess I just haven't died yet." he says. "Maybe I'm just too ornery to die."

Age: Turns 100 on October 16
Birthplace: Manning, Iowa.
Career: Has been a farmer, mechanic, implement-parts salesman.
Education: Graduated from 10th grade in Manning, studied calculation in Illinois.
Family: Wife Mabel died in 1980. They have two sons: Dr. Charles Behrens of Salt Lake City and Claude Behrens of Seaside, Oregon, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Hobbies: Fishing and gardening.

What: Charlie Behren's 100th birthday party-dinner.
Where: Fort Benton Agricultural Museum.
When: October 16 Social hour at 5:15 p.m., flag ceremony at 6:15 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m.
Other details: Tickets are $10. For information call VFW at 622-9941 or Connie Jenkins at 622-4351. Sponsored by Fort Benton VFW, VFW Women's Auxiliary, Fort Benton Women's Club, and Fort Benton Community Improvement Association.

Proud veteran, 101, dies
Charles Frank "Charlie" Behrens, 101, a retired farm implement mechanic and farmer, died Saturday in a Fort Benton nursing home of natural causes.

In accordance with his wishes no services will be held.

Memorials are suggested to the Missouri River Medical Center in Fort Benton. Benton Funeral Home is in charge.

He was born Oct. 16, 1892, in Manning, Iowa, and attended school in Lowden, Iowa. He was a graduate of Dixon College, Dixon, IIIinois.

In 1923 he married Mabel Stoughton in Fisher, Minnesota. They moved to Fort Benton in 1930.

He worked as a farm implement mechanic for many years and upon retirement, returned to his first love - farming.

In 1973 he retired again and gave much of his energy to his vegetable and flower gardens. He walked 5 miles daily in all kinds of weather. He made twice-daily trips to visit his wife, who was confined to a nursing home for four years. She preceded him in death.

A veteran of World War I, he took great pride in participating in Memorial Day and Fourth of July parades and events.

His enjoyed his visits to the local school to share his experiences, and he always pointed out that he could wear his old uniform with the coat buttoned.

The Fort Benton Veterans of Foreign Wars and Woman's Club honored him when he turned 100.

Survivors include two sons, Claude A. Behrens, of Seaside, Ore., and Dr. Charles D. Behrens, of Park City, Utah; six grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

He also was preceded in death by a grandson, Alan.